The short answer
On Fotile a machine that will not drain is most often a disposer knockout plug or a blocked air gap, not a dead drain pump. Ranked that way because the machine is specified for heavy soil loads, so the filter fills far faster than a light household schedule expects.
What you observe
- You can hear the pump running but nothing moves — Either a blockage past the pump or a failed impeller, and the filter check tells you which.
- A pool of water in the bottom at the end of every cycle — The standard signature. It is a blockage far more often than a pump.
- NEAR MISS: water is on the floor rather than in the bottom — That is a leak, and it is a different page. Switch the machine off at the breaker before mopping.
Causes, most likely first on Fotile
- A new disposer plug, or a blocked air gap — First on a fitted machine, which is only ever as good as its installation. A dishwasher plumbed into a waste disposer will not drain at all until the knockout plug inside the disposer inlet has been removed. If the machine has never drained since it was installed, this is very likely the reason.
- The drain hose is kinked, or has lost its high loop — Second: on a fitted machine this is the next thing genuinely yours to check. The hose must rise before it falls, or the machine siphons and never clears. A hose crushed behind the machine when it was last pushed back, or one that has slipped out of its clip under the sink, produces exactly this.
- The sink waste itself is blocked — Third. The dishwasher drains into the same pipework as the sink.
- The drain pump or its check valve has failed — Last, and it is the reason the order above matters. You hear nothing at all from the pump, or you hear it run steadily with no water moving and no blockage anywhere in the path.
Check in this order, and why
- Check the disposer inlet for a knockout plug, and clear the air gap on the worktop if there is one — It is the one cause that explains a machine which has never drained rather than one that has stopped.
- Follow the drain hose from the machine to the sink and look for a kink or a dropped loop — It explains a machine that drains partly, or that refills itself with dirty water.
- Run the sink and watch how fast it clears — A slow sink is a plumbing fault, and no amount of work on the machine will fix it.
What an owner can safely check
- Clear the air gap cap and check the disposer inlet plug has been removed — The air gap unscrews by hand and is usually full of the same debris as the filter.
Tools: torchAbout 15 min
- Ease the machine out, straighten the drain hose and restore its high loop — Clip the hose up under the worktop so it cannot slip down again.
Tools: torchAbout 25 min
- Run the sink, and clear the trap if it is slow — Test the machine again only once the sink drains freely.
Tools: bucketAbout 20 min
- STOP HERE if the next step needs a meter on live terminals — That is where an owner check ends and a service call begins.
Before you open anything
Safety
Switch the machine off at its breaker before reaching into the sump. The chopper blade under the filter is sharp, and broken glass collects in exactly the place your fingers are going, so use a torch and gloves and look first. Bail the standing water out rather than tipping the machine, and never run a cycle with the door propped open.
When to call a technician
Call when the filter, the hose, the air gap and the sink are all clear and the machine still holds water, because that puts the fault in the pump or its check valve. Call sooner if the machine trips its breaker, if you can smell burning from the pump, or if water is reaching the floor as well, and leave it switched off until then.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This page covers the brand and the dishwasher class, not one family or model line. Where a family-specific or model-specific page exists for your unit, that page is the more specific answer and it takes precedence over this one. Not here: part numbers, wiring colours and component locations, which differ by family.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
